New team banners have been made, tickets to the game are sold out again. But this time St Kilda and Collingwood will be forced to battle it out until a winner is declared. Victoria's drawn out football finals will finally come to an end on Saturday.

TONY EASTLEY: New team banners have been made, tickets to the game are sold out again. But this time St Kilda and Collingwood will be forced to battle it out until a winner is declared.

AFL's drawn out football finals will finally come to an end tomorrow.

Rachel Carbonell reports.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Late last night a dedicated team of about forty St Kilda fans were putting the finishing touches on the team banner with sticky tape.

(Sound of sticky tape dispenser)

The making of the banner isn't just a labour of love but a way of diverting the nervous energy pent up from a week on edge and spirits were high.

ST KILDA SUPPORTER: Knock, knock.

CROWD OF ST KILDA SUPPORTERS: Who's there?

ST KILDA SUPPORTER: Owen.

CROWD OF ST KILDA SUPPORTERS: Owen who?

ST KILDA SUPPORTERS (singing): Oh when the Saints go marching in, oh when the Saints go marching in, oh how I want to be in St Kilda, oh when the Saints go marching in.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The cheer squad president is Pam Mawson.

She says making two grand final banners in one week has been a challenge.

PAM MAWSON: We've been busy all week because not only have we got to work out the banner, we had to make sure all our members were able to purchase their tickets again. So lots of phone calls and yeah, very busy.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Are you more tired or more excited at this particular point?

PAM MAWSON: Probably at this point a bit tired. But I have got a day to get over it.

RACHEL CARBONELL: This year Pam Mawson has been assigned extra duties.

PAM MAWSON: I had a phone call from the football club to ask me if I would like to toss the coin for the grand final replay which I very happily accepted.

RACHEL CARBONELL: How are you feeling about that?

PAM MAWSON: Very excited. I think I've told nearly half of Melbourne but I've now finished it off (laughs).

RACHEL CARBONELL: Collingwood's cheer squad were also holed up last night making its team banner.

But it was a little more secretive about its preparations. AM was instructed to seek permission from the club's media manager to interview the cheer squad but the program's calls weren't returned.

Not that there'll be any shortage of media coverage of Collingwood and its supporters today. The team's final training session later this morning is open to the public and black and white Magpies fans will be out in force.

St Kilda will be keeping a low profile after it had its final training session yesterday.

The extended AFL season has raised the ire of the lesser known AFL, the Anti-Football League.

Each year it hosts a lunch in aid of ignoring the grand final.

Member Greg Keogh has hastily convened another albeit smaller one for tomorrow.

GREG KEOGH: You just can't escape it. It's everywhere. It completely occupies people's lives. I don't know what it returns. It just takes so much time and space.

RACHEL CARBONELL: He says the good old days of local football have been lost.

GREG KEOGH: The AFL is just a money making machine. It's lost all its romance. Football is just now a gigantic corporation.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The chief executive of World Vision Tim Costello who doesn't barrack for either grand final team says while he can see the arguments of those who deride Melbourne's football madness, he loves it.

TIM COSTELLO: What the AFL don't own at the end of the day is the history and the tribalism.

In a culture where you have communities fragmenting and a disconnection from roots and history football gives you a reason to put on your colours, to identify with people who you have nothing else in common with except that they barrack for your footy team and you feel an emotional bond.

RACHEL CARBONELL: You went to the first grand final this year. What was it like?

TIM COSTELLO: Oh it was amazing. And afterwards there was this inconsolable Collingwood fan when it drew. And even I felt sorry because he was sobbing.

I said, "Are you okay?" I said, "You didn't win but you didn't lose, you know."

He said, "It's not that." He said, "Next week my sister is getting married and now I have to tell her I can't go to the wedding."

So I understood that perfectly. But when you think about it for a moment it's completely irrational.